Front Upper Control Arm

[xlr8nflorida]

I think many of us on this forum are sick

[tomtom72]

JMHO,

I had bad boots on all of the ball joints on my car from day one of my ownership of it. My bushings were okay, maybe more than okay, maybe not even okay, who knows? I was on borrowed time on the ball joints for sure because of the boots being exploded off of their seats.

I did what Mike did with corvetterecycling.com and bought the set for about $450.00 shipped to me. It was a no contest in my case as four Moog ball joints, the gusher ones, were about $100.00 ea. Then I needed to get a machine shop to do the pressing in & out work....so for me it was the path of least resistance with the most gain. I just added a few things to my project in observance of the "while we're here" rule....I did the sway bar end links and bar to frame mount bushings. Now I have a "restored" front suspension and some level of piece of mind that I got good parts, OEM mostly except for the bar kit from VB&P in poly...

Okay, confession, I didn't do the work so I spent a ton on labor! I can't work where I rent garage space. You, on the other hand, could do all this at the WAZOO Technical Center for Research and Development and save a bunch on labor....well except if you do the sway bar kit as you will have to press out the OE end link bushings in the NOS/OEM arms you bought and press in the ones from the poly kit, if you go that far....and then find a place you trust to do the 4 wheel alignment.

JMHO


Tom

[Aurora40]

Originally Posted by tomtom72

Then I needed to get a machine shop to do the pressing in & out work

I thought you just had to grind or drill off the ends of the rivets and the ball joint would come off? Then new ones you use bolts and nuts to attach?

I've never done it though, that was just my understanding.

[tomtom72]

Originally Posted by Aurora40

I thought you just had to grind or drill off the ends of the rivets and the ball joint would come off? Then new ones you use bolts and nuts to attach?

I've never done it though, that was just my understanding.

On my 72 I had to press in the Moog replacements also. Not actually needing a press for the force as much as the bed made it easy to center the new part while getting it into the hole. These were nut & bolt types. You would not get it in by hand power. Although if you could center it properly, you could just use a big C-clamp. I never saw one that just "dropped" in place in my limited experience, and never saw ones where they fell out after you punched out the rivets.

The thing that made me give up on the idea completely was that over at CF/C4 tech there were a lot of threads about how much force it took to press in the replacement parts. A lot of guys that had arbor presses were questioning the amount of force needed to be excessive, in their opinions. The issue was across a good number of brands, including Moog. Some guys had parts that even the machine shops were questioning the fit issues! I saw a paper over at rockauto.com from Moog about this issue. They admitted to dimension issues on a run of their mid & high end joints, besides some other issues of Q/C. Now all of the threads showed up between early 06, and maybe mid 07. In truth, buy late 07 the landlord had 'come down" on me so it was moot for me & my shade tree stuff anyway.

[-=Jeff=-]

Originally Posted by Aurora40

I thought you just had to grind or drill off the ends of the rivets and the ball joint would come off? Then new ones you use bolts and nuts to attach?

I've never done it though, that was just my understanding.

That is correct for the uppers.. lowers are pressed

I too was going to do the Corvette Recycling route, but I got a deal on a set of Control arms and then Bought the Poly kit.. I did the better lower joints and the Mid-America joints on the uppers. I am happy with the poly kit so far too

[secondchance]

Originally Posted by tomtom72

JMHO,

I had bad boots on all of the ball joints on my car from day one of my ownership of it. My bushings were okay, maybe more than okay, maybe not even okay, who knows? I was on borrowed time on the ball joints for sure because of the boots being exploded off of their seats.

I did what Mike did with corvetterecycling.com and bought the set for about $450.00 shipped to me. It was a no contest in my case as four Moog ball joints, the gusher ones, were about $100.00 ea. Then I needed to get a machine shop to do the pressing in & out work....so for me it was the path of least resistance with the most gain. I just added a few things to my project in observance of the "while we're here" rule....I did the sway bar end links and bar to frame mount bushings. Now I have a "restored" front suspension and some level of piece of mind that I got good parts, OEM mostly except for the bar kit from VB&P in poly...

Okay, confession, I didn't do the work so I spent a ton on labor! I can't work where I rent garage space. You, on the other hand, could do all this at the WAZOO Technical Center for Research and Development and save a bunch on labor....well except if you do the sway bar kit as you will have to press out the OE end link bushings in the NOS/OEM arms you bought and press in the ones from the poly kit, if you go that far....and then find a place you trust to do the 4 wheel alignment.

JMHO


Tom

You are right! WAZOO Tech Center. After doing my own work, I really don't want to have someoneelse work on the car. I take longer but while I am at it I clean hard to access parts and I know the work was done right.
It's not too bad so most likely do both sides come spring. I will keep my ears open and make sure it's not getting too bad.

[ZR1Vette]

Bob was spot on...because of non OEM look of replacing the ball joint.

It dawned on me (because of the WAZOO parts list) that I have the original upper control arm and that if someone can use then it is available. It is in excellent condition sans the ball joint grease cover... so if someone wants to do the ball joint conversion this is a great A arm to use...here are pics of it so tell me what you all think>>>

[secondchance]

Let me give it a thought Michael.
I might take you up on it.

[ZR1Vette]

My pleasure...it is yours if you want

[Z51JEFF]

Ive seen the slip on ball joint covers at the auto parts stores for a few bucks.